SEATTLE – An Edmonds Municipal Court judge and a Shoreline attorney pleaded guilty Friday to federal crimes connected to their improper actions representing members of an international drug-smuggling ring. James Lloyd White, 49, of Edmonds pleaded guilty to a single count of felony money laundering. A. Mark Vanderveen, 45, of Lake Forest Park, pleaded guilty to failing to disclose a $20,000 cash transaction. White faces up to 20 years in prison, and Vanderveen could receive up to 5 years behind bars, but both men are cooperating with authorities and likely will receives substantially reduced punishment, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge James P. Donohue was told. White on Thursday worked his final day as a part-time judge running the municipal court in Edmonds. In court Friday, he admitted that he hid in his home a backpack filled with $100,000 he knew came from people engaged in smuggling cocaine and marijuana across the U.S.-Canada border. White admitted he committed money laundering when he used $20,000 of that drug money to hire Vanderveen to represent one of the drug ring’s admitted conspirators. According to court papers, White gave Vanderveen $10,000 during a meeting in a parking lot. He got another $10,000 to Vanderveen by leaving it in a brown paper bag at the Edmonds courthouse, where Vanderveen also worked part-time as a pro-tem judge, court papers show. As part of their pleas, both attorneys agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, who have been investigating what they’ve described in documents as “a very substantial drug-trafficking organization with active ties to Mexico and Canada.” The investigation became public in February, when a bankrupt Portland, Ore. businessman, Douglas Bryan Spink, 34, was caught as he drove along U.S. 2 in Monroe with 372 pounds of cocaine stuffed in suitcases. Spink had been living in Chilliwack, B.C. Spink had picked up the cocaine in an Everett parking lot from another member of the drug ring, Wesley Kenneth Cornett, 27, of Shoreline. Both men earlier this month pleaded guilty to federal drug charges. On Friday, White admitted that he represented one of the drug group’s alleged leaders, Robert V. Kesling, 26, of Woodinville. White used money Kesling gave him to secure Vanderveen as an attorney for Cornett, according to the plea agreement. White two weeks ago met with Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson and said that he was in legal trouble and needed to resign.
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